Systematic Student:
challenge

The Book Vixen is hosting a YA of the 80s and 90s Challenge.

It's pretty flexible in terms of which books, how many etc, as long as they were originally published in (duh) the 80s or 90s. I've decided to try for 15-30 (a new book for me if I reach 15, a new book for one of you if I reach 30, so recommendations are welcome, and remembered!)

A lot of the books on my list right now are re-reads that I've been meaning to revisit for a while, but haven't gotten around to. Who knows if I'll make time for them all, but it's nice to know they are on there.

Here is my tentative reading list: (I'll add more later...)
~1. After the Rain ~2. The Moorchild ~3. Yolanda's Genius ~4. One-Eyed Cat 5. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 6. The Mists of Avalon 7. Beyond the Chocolate War 8. Goodnight Mr. Tom 9. The Wright Brothers: How they Invented the Airplane ~10. December Stillness *11. Midnight in the Dollhouse *12. When the Dolls Woke *13. Homecoming *14. Dicey's Song *15. A Solitary Blue *16. The Runner *17. Come a Stranger *18. Sons from Afar *19. Seventeen Against the Dealer *20. The Hero and the Crown *21. The Blue Sword 22. Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mt. St. Helen's ~23. The Golden Compass ~24. The Subtle Knife 25. Howl's Moving Castle 26. Sabriel 27. In the Forests of the Night 28. 29. 30.
*marks re-read ~marks owned

I think this needs to be the last challenge I commit myself to for next year... Pretty soon, I'm going to get overwhelmed!:)

Among the Muses is having a Fairy Tale reading challenge for 2011. And I absolutely love retold fairy tales. It's one of my favorite genres, and one I consistently read and enjoy. So, I was really excited to hear about a challenge designed around them!

I've decided to go for the Magical level, which is 4-6 fairy tales, but it's very possible I'll end up reading more than that. This is just the number I'm committing myself to. We'll see how I do!:)

I've been a little unmotivated lately to do things in advance, and I don't really know what/where to go with a few things.
So, when I stumbled across this Holiday Break Reading Challenge, I decided to participate in an attempt to focus my plans, get organized, and get motivated. It lasts from today, Friday the 17th and runs until January 2nd. I don't know exactly what's planned for the upcoming days, but I am excited to see!
There are little challenges/activities to get us moving, and today's is setting goals. Easy right?
So, my goals for this challenge, which will also kind of translate into goals to stick to:
1. Read at least 50% of the review copies I have waiting to be read. 2. Get ahead of my reviews — start writing/scheduling them in advance. At least 1/3 of the 'notebook reviews' should be typed by the end. 3. Explore twitter, and decide if I want to cave on that one... (Any suggestions?) 4. Clean up/rewrite/update some of the pages on my blog.
Is anyone else planning to participate in this challenge? It looks like it could be a lot of fun, so here's to hoping!:)

Adam over at Roof Beam Reader is hosting a challenge in 2011 using our long-standing tbr piles. The challenge is to chose 12 books, each that have been on your tbr for over a year (so no 2010 release dates) and read them. You must read all 12 to complete the challenge, but you have all year to do it, and the order doesn't matter. He also allows a little bit of wiggle room, giving us the option of 2 alternate book choices. You can read the specifics on his site here.

I love reading challenges, and I'm loving that this one draws exclusively from our tbr piles. There are so many great books that have been languishing in that pile for so long, that it will be nice to have an excuse to pull them out and read them.

Here's my list:

1. Frankenstein — Mary Shelley
2. The Sun Also Rises or A Farewell to Arms — Ernest Hemingway
3. The Secret Life of Bees — Sue Monk Kidd
4. Shadow of a Bull — Maia Wojcieowska
5. Surviving the Applewhites — Stephanie S. Tolan
6. The Golden Compass — Phillip Pullman
7. Rebecca — Daphne du Marier
8. Freakonomics — Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
9. War of the Worlds — H.G. Wells
10. The Handmaid's Tale — Margaret Atwood
11. Ender's Game — Orson Scott Card
12. The Shining — Stephen King

Alternates:
13. Twenty Boy Summer — Sarah Ockler
14. The Five People You Met in Heaven — Mitch Albom

I was reading April's blog, Good Books & Good Wine, and she mentioned in a post of hers reading a particular book because of a Fill in the Gaps project. Intrigued, I browsed through her blog to see what it meant. A few days later, I stumbled across this blog, The Fill in the Gaps: 100 Project that talks about the challenge a little more, because it's specifically about this challenge.

I like this idea a lot. There's a lot of books/authors out there that I feel a little bit like a failure at life because I've never read. There are definitely a lot of gaps in my reading repertoire, many books I really want to read (whether I'm interested in the book itself, or merely so I can haughtily say, Why yes, I have read that.) and I like this challenge, because it gives me focus, as well as a time line. And, since I'm putting it on my blog, that's like, commitment.

So, the 'rules' are a little loose, and open to personal interpretation, but I'm going with pretty much what they laid out on the blog — 100 'missing' books read within the next 5 years. Although, since it's almost December now, I'm going to give myself until December of 2015, so I guess I'm snitching an extra 2 days. I'm committing to reading this whole list within the next 5 years. We'll see how that goes!:) If any of you are participating in this, I'd love to see what you are reading/ the progress you are making!

So, thanks April, for being my inspiration.

My list of 100 'missing' books, to remedy the fact that I'm almost a literary failure: (*= books I own)

1. The Return of the King — J.R.R. Tolkien
2. Harriet the Spy — Louise Fitzhugh*
3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest — Ken Kesey*
4. White Fang — Jack London*
5. The Illiad — Homer
6. The Divine Comedy — Dante*
7. On the Road — Jack Kerouac
8. Jane Eyre — Charlotte Bronte*
9. Sense and Sensibility — Jane Austen* (or any Austen minus Pride and Prejudice)
10. Frankenstein — Mary Shelley*
11. The Mists of Avalon — Marion Zimmer Bradley
12. The Handmaid's Tale — Margaret Atwood*
13. The Shining — Stephen King
14. A Clockwork Orange — Anthony Burgess
15. American Psycho — Bret Easton Ellis
16. Flowers for Algernon — Daniel Keyes
17. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 — Beverly Cleary
18. Blubber — Judy Blume
19. I am the Cheese — Robert Cormier
20. A Farewell to Arms — Ernest Hemingway* (Or The Sun Also Rises*)
21. Uncle Tom's Cabin — Harriet Beecher Stowe*
22. Stargirl — Jerry Spinelli
23. Anthem — Ayn Rand
24. After the Rain — Norma Fox Mazer*
25. The Stand — Stephen King
26. Gone with the Wind — Margaret Mitchell
27. Pigs in Heaven — Barbara Kingsolver*
28. The Sound and the Fury — William Faulkner*
29. King of the Wind — Marguerite Henry*
30. Great Expectations — Charles Dickens* (Or any other Dickens minus A Christmas Carol)
31. Homeland — R.A. Salvatore
32. O. Henry's Stories — O. Henry (at least one collection)*
33. Our Town — Thornton Wilder*
34. Candide — Voltaire*
35. Pygmalion — George Bernard Shaw*
36. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams
37. The Screwtape Letters — C.S. Lewis*
38. The Shipping News — Annie Proulx*
39. Wicked — Gregory Maguire
40. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter — Carson McCullers*
41. The Road — Cormac McCarthy
42. Watership Down — Richard Adams
43. The Golden Compass — Phillip Pullman*
44. The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle — Hugh Lofting*
45. The Story of Mankind — Hendrik Van Loon*
46. Black Beauty — Anna Sewell
47. The Secret Garden — Frances Hodgson Burnett*
48. Anne of Green Gables — L.M. Montgomery
49. Sabriel — Garth Nix
50. The Princess and the Goblin — George MacDonald
51. In the Forests of the Night — Amelia Atwater Rhodes
52. The Cider House Rules — John Irving*
53. The Winter's Tale — William Shakespeare (substitute possible)
54. Howl's Moving Castle — Diana Wynne Jones
55. Ender's Game — Orson Scott Card
56. The Glass Castle — Jeannette Walls
57. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — Betty Smith
58. A Little Princess — Frances Hodgson Burnett*
59. The Wind in the Willows — Kenneth Grahame
60. Middlesex — Jeffry Eugenides
61. The Secret Life of Bees — Sue Monk Kidd*
62. Memoirs of a Geisha — Arthur Golden*
63. War of the Worlds — H.G. Wells*
64. Beloved — Toni Morrison
65. Nineteen Minutes — Jodi Picoult (Substitute Picoult book possible)
66. East of Eden — John Steinbeck*
67. The Five People You Met in Heaven — Mitch Albom*
68. The Knife of Never Letting Go — Patrick Ness
69. Never Let Me Go — Kazuo Ishiguro
70. Dealing with Dragons — Patricia C. Wrede
71. Among the Hidden — Margaret Peterson Haddix
72. The Book of Three — Lloyd Alexander
73. The Lightning Thief — Rick Riordan
74. Rebecca — Daphne Du Marier*
75. The Jungle — Upton Sinclair*
76. Lolita — Vladimir Nabokov
77. Things Fall Apart — Chinua Achebe
78. My Name is Asher Lev — Chaim Potok
79. The Thirteenth Tale — Diane Setterfield*
80. Man's Search for Meaning — Victor Frankl
81. Trumpet of the Swan — E.B. White*
82. Twenty Boy Summer — Sarah Ockler*
83. An Abundance of Katherines — John Green
84. One Hundred Years of Solitude — Gabriel Garcia Marquez (or Love in the Time of Cholera)
85. The (Unabridged) Count of Monte Cristo — Alexandre Dumas
86. The Ropemaker — Peter Dickinson*
87. Inkheart — Cornelia Funke
88. The Mysterious Benedict Society — Trenton Lee Stewart
89. Milkweed — Jerry Spinelli
90. Freakonimics — Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner*
91. Mother Night — Kurt Vonnegut Jr.*
92. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer — Mark Twain*
93. Oedipus Rex — Sophocles*
94. Crime and Punishment — Fyodor Dostevsky*
95. The Last of the Mohicans — James Fenimore Cooper*
96. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich — Alexander Solzhenitsyn*
97. The Perilous Gard — Elizabeth Marie Pope
98. Tam Lin — Pamela Dean
99. 84, Charing Cross Road — Helene Hanff
100. Twelfth Night — William Shakespeare

Read: 3/100
Need to Read: 97/100

I haven't signed up for any of the many challenges floating around the blogging world, but I want to. So, I'm finding some now that look like fun, and I'm gonna do it!!

The Book Vixen is hosting some challenges on her blog for 2011 that I think sound like a lot of fun. So, my first two challenges are both found on her site.

First, is the OutDo Yourself Reading Challenge: The goal here is to read more books than you read this year. Right now my count is right about 225, and I know that will go up by the end of the year, I've still got a whole month and a half! I don't know what my life will be like next year, and how much reading I'll be able to get done, so I'm going for the Out of Breath level, and just hoping to get at least 6-10 more books read than this year. I'll update at the end of the year and let you know how I did!

The second challenge is the YA of the 80s and 90s Reading Challenge. The name pretty much says what this challenge is about — reading those YA published in the 80s and 90s. There's no numerical requirements or levels — just a pick your own/read at your own rate. So, I'm setting my own goal. I've decided that I want to read all the books I currently own that fit this requirement. And, I'm also going to try and read the rest of the Newbery Honor books I have left over from the 80s and 90s. I'll try to write up a list in the future that's a little more specific, but for now, this is fine.

I'm not completely sure how many books I own were published in the 80s/90s, but I want to keep this realistic. So, I'm going to try and read at least 15 books that fit by the end of the year. If I meet that goal, I'm going to buy myself a prize. If I double that, I think I'll just have to give one of you a prize. So, if you have any recommendations for me, let me know!

So, this is what I've got as far as challenges so far. I love challenges, so I'm sure I'll find more eventually, but for now, it's a start! What challenges are you participating in?

This morning was very unproductive for me. I didn't get very much accomplished, at all. I watched Twitter update, compulsively checked my email, visited the bloggers who came to my site and started about 5 posts that I just saved for later because I couldn't concentrate. I can claim, 1, maybe 2 hours of productivity here.

However, after I got home from my grandmother's 85th birthday party, I was a lot more productive. I:

• created a flavicon for my blog (see me?! How cool is that!:) ) . (Hey Lady)
• copyrighted my blog (and seriously wished I had done it sooner, because I don't know a way to back track for my 2010 posts)
• graded my website and have started looking into ways to boost my rating (Bookish Ruth)
• updated my Review Policy, my About Me page, and my review listing. (Devourer of Books)
• re-signed up for Google Alerts (Emily's Reading Room)
• changed all my old post titles to Review: Name of Book, Author, which makes everything uniform and easier to find, and will make future posts easier to plan.
• updated GR. it now has all the reviews from my blog. (I wasn't missing that many... Yay!)
• visited 10 or so new Bloggiesta bloggers, read all their About Me pages (if they had them) and left comments! Both on reviews and their Bloggiesta posts!

• create a button for ME and for Memory Monday
• add a share bar to my posts
• look into the Other Posts You Might Like Widget (any suggestions?)
• convert my RSS feed.
• actually finish writing up some new posts and Memory Monday ideas. I probably won't get 9 reviews, but I'd like to write up at least 4 more reviews.
• finish visiting the blogs I follow
• visit new blogs, plan to visit even more
• clean out my email
• read...

Well, today was a bit of a crazy day. I'm staying with family (my Grandma's 85th birthday party is tomorrow) and there have been large amounts of people in and out of the house all day. Which means, I'm a bit easily distracted.:)

Anyway, I did manage to get two Memory Monday posts ready to go, as well as one review. I do plan to write up at least one more before I go to bed tonight, but I also want to visit a few more blogs, so we'll see what I actually end up doing.

I also visited several blogs and left encouragements and comments. I've found some new blogs I want to come back to, and I'm excited to find a few more.

I also took part in a few of the mini-challenges, and have saved a few more to work on over the next two days.

Oh, and I decided that whatever I'm doing for the SEO stuff is going to have to be enough, because I have no idea what I'm doing, and the articles I tried reading didn't make a whole lot of sense. This is probably a combination of not quite knowing exactly what the terms they used meant (although I did usually have a decently good idea) and being tired from working and then staring at a computer screen. So, I've kind of given up on the SEO stuff. I did Google variations of my blog name, and I do pop up right about the top, so right now, I'm good with that.

I plan to spend tomorrow working on my buttons and some more reviews, and well as visiting a bunch of the blogs I follow, as well as the Bloggiesta blogs. I know there are a lot of great blogs out there, and I'd like to add a few more to my 'follow' list, especially since I plan to clean up my list a little bit.

Although I spent a lot of time with the appropriate windows up and open, I probably only spent about 4 hours today actually working on Bloggiesta. But, I'm staying up a little later tonight than is wise to get a little more done, and I plan to be much more successful tomorrow. How did your first day go?

I'm really excited to be participating in Bloggiesta this year. The last Bloggiesta happened June of 2010, right after I started my blog. Although it looked like a lot of fun/really cool, it also seemed like it would be a little overwhelming to do Bloggiesta and be a brand new blogger. So, I hovered and stalked but didn't participate.

This year, however, I plan to participate fully! I have a lot of things that I would like to get done, more than I expect I will actually able to accomplish. However, I want to make it a priority to mark off at least half of my to-do list, something that I generally say I will do, but rarely, actually, do.

So, what do I want to do? Well, I'm glad you asked! I want to:

• Get caught up on reviews. I used to write reviews right after I finished the book. Now, I don't write the review until I'm ready to post it. Idealistically, I'd like to get completely caught up. Realistically, I'd like to write/schedule at least 9 reviews.
• Write up advance Memory Monday posts — at least 3.
• Memory Monday Guest Bloggers —
• Fairy Tale Fortnight! Work out reviews, button formatting, etc.
• A button for Memory Monday, and for my blog (finally...)
• Update all my pages, especially the Review Archive and Review Policy.
• Make sure my Goodreads reviews are up to date with my blog reviews.
• Clear out the blogs I follow — Meaning — Visit every blog I follow and read 5-7 posts well. Leave comments, interact etc. If I can't figure out why I'm following them — stop.
• Visit more blogs, and follow new blogs that I know I'm going to like better/more.
• Work out some ideas I've been having for discussion topics into actual posts.
• Explore the 'You might also like these posts' feature.
• Finish reading at least one of the three books I'm currently reading (so I don't feel guilty taking away blogging time by reading...)

So, I'm entering another challenge. Sigh... But, in my defense, I actually think I'll be able to accomplish most of this challenge without trying too hard to find books I need to read, several of which I know are already on my to-read soon list. This will just... give them priority.

So, I'm joining the Kick Ass Heroine Challenge, because it's nice to focus on the super hard core female in literature.:)

You can read as many books as you want, but the minimum is 12, which is just one a month. And, since a lot of the recent fantasy/paranormal/sci-fi stories have seriously wicked female MCs. I've read a few recently, and plan to read several more soon, so it's not too much of a stretch to include a few more. I'm going to be 'safe' here, and just aim for 12, and if I happen to read more, more power to me.

So, call me crazy, but here I go!:)

Alright... So, I have this problem, where I see a great/really interesting challenge, and I just feel like I need to sign up for it/participate in it... So, although these lists may change, (added to...) here is a tentative post including all the challenges I wish to participate in for 2011. Most of these have quite a bit of overlap, so that isn't too bad, but I also think I might be crazy... :)

So, first, I have my new Fill in the Gaps: 100 Books project. (first link takes you to my post, second takes you to the official blog) I won't waste the space repeating my list here...

Next, I'm participating in two challenges hosted by The Book Vixen: The Out Do Yourself Challenge, where you try to read more books in 2011 than in 2010. This one might be trickier than I expected, because I'm finished at 250. For obvious reasons, I'm not going to list which books I think I'll try, but I'll probably be working toward reading around 260 books next year...

She is also hosting a fun YA of the 80s and 90s Challenge. It's pretty flexible in terms of which books, how many etc, but I've decided to try for 15-30. I think a lot of these are going to end up as rereads, because there are a lot of great books from this era that I miss, and really want to read again, so it will probably end up about half and half.

This brings me to my next challenge, which is the Read Me Baby, One More Time Challenge hosted by Midnight Book Girl. The goal here is to reread old favorites. This gives me a great excuse to read books I've been wanting to reread, but have felt guilty about because of all the other books I have waiting to be read. But, I don't care. Some of these books just need a reread! I'm going to sign up for the highest level, which is 13-20 books reread, because many of the books I want to reread are part of a series. Like, Harry Potter and The Tillerman Saga. Both childhood favorites, both with 7 books. Easy, right?!:)

I've also decided that I need to shrink my personal: Own and Need to Read list, so I'm participating in the Off the Shelf Challenge, hosted by BA Reading Challenges. Again, I don't have an actual list of which books I plan on reading, but I will update as I go. And, I'm trying for the On a Roll level, which means I'll be trying to read 50 books I owned before Jan. 1, 2011.

Going along with the above challenge, Adam over at Roof Beam Reader is hosting his 2011 TBR Pile Challenge. You have to read 12 books that have been on your TBR list for over a year, so no 2010 pub. dates. My post about this challenge is HERE, so you can see what I want to read.

I also have discovered that I really enjoy reading Multicultural fiction, and I want to make a conscious effort to read more. So, I've joined the POC Reading Challenge, hoping to get more books read with main characters who are different from me. One of the reasons we read is to learn, and I definitely know I have a lot to learn here. Any recommendations would be especially helpful!! For this challenge, you set your own goals, and I want to read at least 12 multicultural/POC books. That's only one a month, so I'm hoping that my actual numbers will be closer to 24 or 36. We'll see how I do!:)

And then, my final challenge — Among the Muses is hosting a Fairy Tale Reading Challenge! I LOVE Fairy Tales! How great that there is a challenge just about them!:) I'm aiming for 4-6, but I'm hoping to get more than that. And, this challenge goes along great with Misty @ Book Rat and my Fairy Tale Fortnight Event in April! Mark that down, if you haven't already!:)

Also, as a personal challenge, I want to start commenting more on the blogs that I read. So, I've decided that over the next little while, I want to visit every blog I follow and click on 5-7 reviews. Read the reviews, comment on at least half, and make sure I know why I follow them. I'm sad to admit that there are some blogs I don't read, that I follow. Not sure why I followed in the first place, but there are several blogs I follow who primarily review books I don't read... So, I'm going to try and remove the blogs I don't read, and then I can find even more blogs that I will!:)

So, what challenges are you participating in? And, I'm pretty sure I'm nuts!

I know that I said I wasn't going to participate in any more challenges this year (ha! 2011 now!:) ) but I saw this one, and decided to go for it.

I have a bunch of books that I've been wanting to reread for a while now, but I have so many other books to read, that it's hard to find the time. But I found a new challenge, and I decided to participate so I could reread some old favorites.

Midnight Book Girl is hosting a Read Me Baby One More Time Challenge. You can chose your level of participation based on how many books you want to try and reread, and I've decided to go with Groundhog Day, which is 13-20 rereads, although I might change that to Back to the Future, which is 9-12.

I want to reread a bunch of old favorite series, which means getting to 12 or 13 shouldn't be that hard, especially because two of the series I'm considering for the reread are 7 books each.

I'm not totally sure which books I'm going to select for this yet, but I'm thinking about rereading The Tillerman Saga by Cynthia Voigt, which are 7 books beginning with Homecoming, the 4 Novels of Kingdom beginning Jackaroo also by Voigt, The Hero and the Crown, and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, Midnight in the Dollhouse and When the Dolls Woke by Marjorie Stover, and of course, my long time favorite, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls.

We'll see what happens! I'm pretty excited to have an excuse to reread these old favorites! I'd love to hear from you if you are participating also!